How to clear DNS cache on your computer (Mac, Windows, Chrome)

Are you in need of clearing your DNS cache? Clearing the DNS cache can help fix DNS related issues, especially after you change your domain records.

DNS information tells your browser where your domain name is pointing to. Your computer keeps this information in the cache to help the browser quickly get in the right direction.

In this article, we will show you how to clear your DNS cache on Mac, Windows, and Chrome computers. This will allow you to easily refresh the DNS records stored on your device and help you troubleshoot DNS issues when visiting websites.

What is DNS cache?

DNS buffers are like an address book stored on your computer with domain name server (DNS) information of every website you visit.

A DNS server or Domain name is a technology that tells your computer the IP address associated with a domain name. Storing DNS information in the local DNS cache helps your browser quickly find a website.

When you enter the website address in your browser, it will look for DNS information in the local cache first. If it finds it uses the DNS cache to access the site.

On the other hand, if the information is not in the local DNS cache, then the browser will get that information from other DNS servers on the internet.

This ensures that every time you visit any website, your browser has the shortest route to get the DNS information needed to locate the site on the internet.

However, this can sometimes cause problems. For example, when you first point a domain to a new server, DNS information may not be updated immediately on your computer and you may notice that you are still visiting the old website. And to solve this problem let's see how to clear DNS cache on different platforms.

How to clear DNS cache in Windows

If you are using a Windows computer, this is how you clear the DNS cache on your device.

First, you need to open CMD on your computer.

search cmd on windows - How to clear DNS cache

After opening CMD you enter the following command:

Press Enter to execute the command and Windows will clear the DNS cache.

cmd command

Note: You may need to run this command repeatedly until the DNS cache is updated

How to clear DNS cache on macOS

If you are using a Mac computer, follow the steps below to clear your DNS cache.

First, you need to launch the Terminal application.

search terminal in macos

In the terminal window, enter the following command.

run command on terminal - How to clear DNS cache

You will be asked to enter your macOS account password. After entering the password, type Enter to run the command

Clear the DNS cache in Chrome

Google Chrome also keeps its own DNS cache, and it is separate from the DNS cache hosted by your operating system. If you use Google Chrome as your primary browser, you also need to clear your Chrome Chrome DNS cache.

First, you need to enter the following address in the address bar of the browser and press enter on your keyboard.

host cache chrome - How to clear DNS cache

Here you need to click the button Clear host cache and Chrome will clear its DNS cache.

How to check for DNS updates

After you point the domain name to a new IP address during this time, it is possible that your domain name will still point to the old location and sometimes it will point to the new IP. This depends on your geographical location and which DNS server your browser is using.

You can check that these DNS changes are spread around the world with online tools like DNS Checker. Just enter your domain name and it will fetch DNS from different geographical locations spread around the world.

dns checker

If all locations show only the same IP address with a green check mark, this means that the DNS changes have been updated on the internet.

Also you can check if your computer has updated DNS or not by pinging your domain name. If your computer has not updated DNS you need to proceed to delete DNS cache

ping

Conclude

We hope this article has helped you know how to clear the DNS cache on your computer. You may also want to view our other shared posts here.

If you have any comments or suggestions, you can leave a comment below.

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